Skip to main content

Table 2 Exemplar quotes representing IKT challenges and recommendations expressed by interview participants

From: Identifying the conditions needed for integrated knowledge translation (IKT) in health care organizations: qualitative interviews with researchers and research users

Theme

Challenge

Recommendation

Organizational

Lack of infrastructure to support collaboration

• There is no mechanism at the moment to foster interaction other than the personal contacts we have [HCDO Researcher 03]

• The researchers are out there working on their own in isolation [HCMO Director 43]

• We don’t have IT systems that work and talk to each other [HCDO Clinician 23]

• One thing that people have been very frustrated about is that they have not been able to share their data with others for research [HCMO Researcher 31]

Philosophy of collaboration

• Recognition from the highest levels of the organization…identify this as an area of work that is valuable [HCDO Researcher 01]

• Creating an environment where these groups can thrive and work together [HCDO Clinician 22]

Infrastructure and dedicated resources

• Health services research needs to actually increase their infrastructure [HCMO Clinician 35]

• There needs to be a concerted effort to put resources behind it [HCDO Clinician Researcher 23]

Align IKT with organizational priorities

• Identify what health services research issues are going to be priorities [HCDO Clinician Research 12]

• We should be directing in a more clear way with a goal in mind to health services research rather than the health services research kind of doing fishing expeditions [HCMO Manager 35]

Professional

Lack of research expertise

• We lack of lot of expertise that would be helpful for health services like biostats, health economists, sociology, psychology [HCDO Researcher 06]

Differing cultures between researchers and managers

• The culture of management and the culture of research are different [HCDO Researcher 07]

• So it’s just different cultures [HCMO Researcher 30]

Silos of clinicians and types of researchers

• Organizational structure is still driven by the silos of medicine, nursing, allied health [HCDO Clinician 25]

• It may also be a need to work not in silos so the people who have the data won’t be isolated from the people who need the data [HCMO Researcher 30]

Unclear who bears responsibility for initiating collaboration

• Research has to make more of an effort to … make known what could be available to the clinician [HCMO Manager 40]

Not aware of who to contact

• I don’t think I…we have a way of having a good picture of who’s even out there [HCMO Director 43]

• They often don’t know that each other exits [HCDO Researcher 04]

Accrue a critical mass of researchers with differing expertise

• Creating a critical mass of researchers [HCDO Clinician 21]

• We’re gonna need to invest in people [HCMO Researcher 30]

Engage intermediaries to broker partnerships

• You need knowledge brokers…who you would contact and say I’m interested in looking at whatever…who’s the policy maker looking at that? [HCDO Clinician 11]

Embed researchers within clinical or management units

• [researchers should] come out of your office, appear on the ward, go to the rounds, sit in the clinic, talk with doctors and nurses and pharmacists [HCDO Manager 19]

Develop a directory of research/researchers

• Some kind of directory…to find people who are content experts and some of their ongoing research to get a flavour of who I might want to approach [HCDO Clinician 11]

• Some kind of interactive forum for lodging research questions that feed out to a broader user community [HCDO Researcher 04]

Create forums to enable collaboration

• The managers come present some of their challenges and concerns…or the researchers present their work [HCDO Clinician 11]

• Clinical experts and health services researchers all at the same table would be a useful thing [HCMO Clinician 35]

Individual

Lack of familiarity or comfort with IKT

• [Researchers are] not well embedded into our processes and we’re not well embedded into theirs [HCMO Director 43]

• Their goals may be very similar but they may not really know how to talk to each other [HCDO Researcher 02]

Time required for IKT

• I don’t know how we maintain the relationships because you know how busy people are [HCMO Researcher 30]

• Everyone’s extremely busy so getting together isn’t going to happen [HCDO Manager 17]

Lack of incentives or accountability mechanisms

• There really hasn’t been any relationship between management and researchers which is understandable because incentives, experience and accountability differ [HCDO Researcher 07]

Provide IKT training

• Hold some workshops around how to actually do this to develop that whole skill set [HCDO Manager 09]

Incentivize IKT with accountability mechanisms and recognition

• If health services researchers got credit for impact at a system level, it would influence the way in which they select topics, put together the research teams and knowledge transfer strategies [HCMO Manager 39]

• The measure of success may not be publications, it could be developing practice innovations, a new model of care, cost efficiencies, improved access for patients, new educational programs [HCDO Manager 21]

• Incentives to recognize people for their time…stimulate people’s interest and appeal to what they’re doing and make it look worthwhile [HCDO Clinician 29]

  1. HCDO health care delivery organization, HCMO health care monitoring organization